2903. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 17, 4–6.
Florence.
Febr 10. [1851] [1]
Robert says, dearest Miss Blagden, that you will be sure to have applied the adage of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ because I have not written to you. I, on the contrary, have faith in your faith in us– You see, it is not as if there were no one in Florence to write letters to you– Your friends in Via Sant’Anna [2] send you sheet upon sheet with all the news in each—while we have scarcely anything to say except ‘we miss you, we miss you, we miss you’, & that, you must know without telling– Then, I have been overwhelmed by letters to answer .. sixteen, still unanswered, as Robert proves to me! Do forgive the past silence then, & believe in spite of it how very glad I was to have your letter to answer (though I did’nt answer it) & how we both rejoice in your enjoyment of Rome. [3] We heard still more of it than you told us, from Miss Agassiz, who bestowed an evening on us out of her gaieties, which at this carnival time, was especially kind– Only, now do take care, & dont be infatuated with Rome .. keep within the bounds of a reasonable attachment .. so that you may still like Florence best & care to come back to us soon– Naples is to be looked at, & not stayed in, remember—oh, you wont like to stay there from what I hear—it will be too noisy, too hot, too dusty, too dear, &, above everything, too out of reach of books– Not a Dumas springs in the desert!– How do you manage in Rome? Perhaps, between the sun & the ruins, one can do at Rome without books, .. I can almost fancy the possibility of it .. yes, and I quite can envy you for being there to try– As for ourselves we may wish and wish, but we cant untie the knot that keeps us here—it’s impossible– To console us a little we have had a lovely winter, bright, mild, unexceptionable,—and Wiedeman is out nearly all day long, & able to keep out so late that he makes acquaintance with the moon—for which he professes great admiration, clasping his hands in rapture– Oh, dont let me forget to tell you, that Robert has had the misfortune of becoming an “uncle” after all,—& that our new little nephew is about a fortnight old– The event has relieved my mind & left me very thankful, my sister being perfectly well.
Then I have had heaps of books lately—they come in shoals like the fisheries– Southey’s life, Household words, Emerson’s book upon heroes [4] —sometimes Brecker & sometimes somebody else sends books “unattempted yet, .. in prose or rhyme” [5] .. and then I have been reading that villainous Strauss [6] who is happily scarcely readable, he is so dull. To be dull & wicked together, may be called “a chance” in this world– It does’nt happen so, in our dear France,—does it? And I dont say he is wicked because of his being an infidel, remember, .. but because of the bad animus & the want of veracity (to my mind) which his book expresses– Emerson’s thoughts are very beautiful—& the sword of his fine, keen language flashes before your eyes—he is certainly the greatest of the Americans. By the way, we have just heard of an American edition of “Christmas Eve” &c being in Florence. They have been quick about it, have’nt they? [7]
Now do write, dear friend, & tell us everything about yourself, .. how you are, how you spend your days, whom you see & talk with, how the Pope is, & how Elisa [8] is, & whether either of them is likely to be better or worse before long– Tell us a little of what you observe as to the popular feeling .. if you dare to write such things .. as it is so difficult to know the truth. Have you seen Mrs Sartoris [9] yet? Do you like the Romans better than the Florentines? As to the Florentines, I would gladly have informed myself upon certain details of the state of mind of certain abandoned individuals, [10] but, being discreet, I did not dare name the subject to Miss Agassiz.– We live on in our old way .. the waters run too silently for listening to– We have made one additional acquaintance—a young American artist, Mr Buchanan Read, [11] who has written poems, already in a second edition, indicative of much poetical feeling & fancy– He is a believer in the “knocks” [12] ––which, perhaps you will say, is enough to distinguish any man, without poetry proper– Are you doing anything to the tragedy? [13] or are you absorbed in ruins? I meant that Robert should have written a part of this letter,—but he is out, and you must wait for another occasion for him to throw some spark of his into my chaff, to make it blaze up a little– As it is, nothing can be duller than what I send you– Only you must forgive it, with other faults & shortcomings of your ever affectionate friend
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Address, on integral page: A Mademoiselle / Madelle Blagden / Casa Piesmicoli. [14] Secondo piano. / 18. Via dei Prefetti / Campo Marzo / Roma.
Publication: B-IB, pp. 17–19.
Manuscript: Boston Public Library.
1. Year supplied by postmark.
2. This street lies just to the north of the church of San Marco; we have been unable to identify Isa Blagden’s friends.
3. According to the Passport Register in the State Archives of Florence, Miss Blagden and her maid were issued travel permits, dated 2 January 1851, for Bologna and Rome.
For this and many of the annotations that draw upon Italian sources in the present volume, the editors gratefully acknowledge the scholarly assistance of Simonetta Berbeglia of Arezzo, Italy.
4. Representative Men (Boston, 1850) by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey (6 vols., 1849–50) was edited by his son Charles Cuthbert Southey.
5. Paradise Lost, I, 16.
6. EBB refers to Das Leben Jesu (Tübingen, 1835–36) by David Friedrich Strauss.
7. i.e., “quick about” pirating RB’s work. However, we have been unable to trace an American edition of Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day published at this time.
8. Perhaps Eliza Ann Dolling (1844–1917) daughter of Robert Holbeach Dolling (1809–78) and his wife Eliza (née Alexander, 1811–70), Miss Blagden’s first cousin.
9. Adelaide Sartoris (née Kemble, 1815–79) gave up a successful opera career when she married Edward Sartoris (1814–88) in 1842. According to the DNB, she and her husband “spent much time in Italy. Their house, near the Trinità dei Monti, was said to be one of the pleasantest in Rome.”
10. Unidentified.
11. Thomas Buchanan Read (1822–72), American painter and poet, published Paul Redding: a tale of the Brandywine in 1845; it went into a second edition the same year. He painted portraits of EBB and RB in 1853 (see Reconstruction, F18 and G5).
12. A reference to spiritualism; believers claimed that spirits could communicate through the sound of knocks or raps.
13. Presumably the play discussed in letter 2839.
14. Sic, for Piernicoli.
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